


light that never goes out

by ashmes



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Feelings, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22723516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashmes/pseuds/ashmes
Summary: Sasuke's not that great at rekindling an old friendship, but to be fair, neither is Naruto. Teenagers and emotions never quite come out the way they mean it without a little help.Or, Sasuke comes back to high school and Naruto doesn't know how to deal with it.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 15
Kudos: 264





	light that never goes out

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO EVERYBODY! This is for KIWI <3 I got you for the Valentine's exchange and I was like I FINALLY get to dedicate a fic to you, so here it is. I hope you like it :~)
> 
> The prompt was SNS being delinquents, and I've been wanting to write a fic like this for FOREVER in a modern/high school setting so I took it and ran with it. Honestly, it being me, I couldn't help but adding some backstory and ~feelings~ to this, to where it's barely them doing delinquent stuff and it's more... Well, you'll see. Feelsy. LOL.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy! No warnings necessary. Unbeta'd, unedited. I really procrastinated here, aha
> 
> Spoilers at the end of notes, so only read it once you've finished the fic hehe.

Today the back of Sasuke’s hair looks like a duckbutt. 

It’s always the same, no matter what day it is, but Naruto likes to use his imagination and run with it, like people do when staring up at the clouds and trying to figure out what blobless shape the puff of white resembles. Other days Sasuke’s hair is messy, the waves of his hair sticking up in the back as if it’s a black ocean itself and Naruto wants to run his fingers through it—to make it so messy it’s no longer effortlessly charming but actually ugly instead. Better than listening to the seconds on the clock tick by or counting the number of tiles on the ceiling while waiting for detention to end. 

Sasuke had always been a distraction for Naruto, ever since elementary school where he’d see him in passing, to middle school where they were forced to be partners for a majority of projects because of the alphabetical placements of their last names, before everything turned to shit between them. Always in Naruto’s line of sight, peripheral, and even in his thoughts. Ever present no matter how their world changes, a constant in a sea of turbulance and inconsistency. 

Naruto knows he distracts Sasuke too, although the bastard would never admit it. Otherwise Sasuke wouldn’t have been caught up with Naruto’s antics, wouldn’t be in detention with him right now. 

At least, that’s what Naruto tells himself.

The bell rings at four o’clock, and Yamato Sensei dismisses them from his classroom. Chairs scraping against the floors fill the room, and the other students in detention rise from their seats and rushing towards the door desperate to chase back the hour stolen from them by detention, but Naruto’s focused on Sasuke. On the way he takes his time to sling his backpack over himself, casual and without rush, looking infuriatingly cool. Naruto scowls and apparently Sasuke must sense it or something, considering the way he turns around to look at him and the corner of his lip twitches upward.

“What’s that face for, usuratonkachi?”

“Because you piss me off,” Naruto answers, pulling his backpack straps over his shoulders. Lingers in Sasuke’s space before the two set off for the too short walk to the bus stop. “Asshole.”

“I didn’t even say anything to you until right now.”

“You’re the reason we ended up in detention in the first place.”

Sasuke quirks a brow, the twitch of his lips morphing into an all too pleased with himself smirk. The look that has Naruto’s face grow hot and his stomach turn into knots. Naruto hates it more than anything. 

“Considering you were the one who got all competitive first, I don’t see how it’s my fault.”

Naruto rolls his eyes and scoffs. “Don’t act like you didn’t know what you were doing. You were showing off during the mile today.”

A grin spreads across Sasuke’s face, though it’s only in Naruto’s peripheral. “Interesting theory. Who would I show off for?”

“Dunno,” Naruto mutters. “But you started it.”

“ _You_ wanted to fight _me_.”

Bastard may have a point with that one.

Grumbling, Naruto lets the sound fall away to the sound of their sneakers scraping along the pavement and cars passing them by. Their the only ones on the sidewalk heading towards the bus stop, and it’s peaceful, quiet in a way they never get a chance of having during school. They’re in the same grade, share a few classes together, but the two of them are in different social circles. Always in the other’s line of sight, but never quite close enough.

Maybe in another life, they could’ve been friends. However, Sasuke’s made it clear enough he thinks he’s too good for Naruto. Ever since they were kids, it had always been Naruto chasing Sasuke’s back and Sasuke always out of his reach.

Sasuke’s bus comes first, because it always does. The doors open and Sasuke stands from the bench they’re sitting on and enters the bus and takes his usual seat on the left side, where Naruto can still see him. Never sparing Naruto a second glance, or a goodbye. Nothing but the indifference and occasional moments where he puts up with Naruto before he realizes he’s free from him. 

Except today, because when Naruto’s gaze accidentally falls back to where Sasuke is, right as the bus is driving off, Sasuke’s staring at him too. The subtlest of smiles on his face, unaware Naruto caught him because the bus is already driving away and Sasuke’s already facing forward until they disappear over the horizon. 

And it leaves him wondering how many times Naruto has spent distracted by Sasuke, whether or not Sasuke had been looking at him back.

  
  
  


Naruto’s weapon of choice is a spray can of paint and someplace pretentious and eye-catching enough in the school to make sure everybody on campus had a good look. 

He’s no artist. At least not in any traditional sense, like Sai, or experimentally, like Deidara from a couple years before one of his pieces exploded during a showcase that got him kicked out of the academy. The best he can do with a pen and paper is some gratuitous stick figures and a couple of frog doodles, but anything other than that, he’s at a loss. Except when he’s tagging, he understands what it means to express oneself through their work in a way talking never did. 

It was frowned upon, yeah, and landed him in detention more times than he could count, but nothing else had ever truly made him felt _seen_ before. 

Naruto’s currently spraying a moustache on the Headmaster’s painting in the hall of all of Konoha Academy’s greatest, Old Man Sarutobi as he’d call him. Next to his big head, a speech bubble reads, _Wrinkly Bastard_.

A snicker escapes him as he looks back on his work, only for him to let out a quick yelp when Sasuke says, “You made Sarutobi look better, moron.”

“Now just wait a min—Wait, what?” Naruto glances back at Sasuke, whose mouth is curled into an amused smirk at the defamation. “You like what I did?”

“Yeah, he’s an asshole. It’s well deserved,” Sasuke remarks, still admiring the ruined painting, while Naruto was staring at him. Whatever the headmaster did to get Sasuke on his bad side, he didn’t say, but Naruto’s heart was beating a little too loud in his ears to focus too much on that detail. “Been a while since you’ve done this, though. I remember you were a lot more… vulgar in middle school.”

Warmth floods his cheeks at the reminder, and the fact Sasuke of all people had remembered his antics from when he was more annoying and cringier than he was now, though that’s not saying much. At least now he had friends instead of the isolating loneliness that could only come from being _too much_ for middle school. 

“You noticed I‘ve been holding back.”

“Who wouldn’t?” Sasuke asks, finally turning towards him with the echoes of a smirk on his face. “After all, it’s you, dumbass.”

For some reason, Naruto’s brain can’t decipher if that was Sasuke’s weird form of a compliment, or a hidden insult, or somehow a combination of the two. Either way, because he doesn’t want to look stupid, he bristles, lets his voice grow louder the more his face heats up under Sasuke’s gaze. “What’s that supposed to mean, huh bastard?!”

Sasuke arches a single black brow, as if Naruto had asked him the stupidest question on earth. Given his track record, he can admit that any other question would’ve made a case for doubt, but what he wanted was clarity. Considering it’s Sasuke of all people he’s talking to, king of making Naruto confused and doubtful and always searching just under the surface of his words for a hidden meaning, the thorn under his tongue, he didn’t think it was too much to ask for some clarification. 

With a sigh, Sasuke merely explains, “You never hold back on anything, ever. Every time you act out, it’s because you want attention for some reason or another. It’s not difficult to understand, Naruto.”

There’s something about the way Sasuke says his name that has him grow still and stare. Familiar and careful in the way he pronounces each syllable, smooth and rich like velvet. As if Naruto’s name was something to use for special occasions.

No one else has used his name like that before, or has read him so honestly and completely. It makes him feel raw, like an open wound being tended to for the first time.

“Hand me the can, loser.”

It takes a moment for Sasuke’s words to come into focus and for his brain to process, but Naruto hands over the spraypaint over wordlessly as Sasuke takes it into his hands, long, deft fingers brushing over Naruto’s and making his stomach twist. He swallows hard, stuffs his hands in the pockets of his non school-sanctioned windbreaker, opting to watch Sasuke rather than embarrass himself with a voice that would give himself away. 

Sasuke shakes the can in his hand, brows furrowing in concentration before his eyes light up and gets to work. With a steady hand, he sprays a devils tail behind the third headmaster’s shoulder, then adding a crown on the top of his head encasing a pointed hat with all capital letters that read _DUNCE_.

Plus, a mess of curse words Iruka would ground him for simply repeated. There’s something else on Sasuke’s mind, but just as he’s about to add whatever it is, he pauses. Turns to Naruto to say, “Look away for a second and wait for me to turn back around.”

“What?! Why?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“A surprise?”

“Turn around, dobe.”

So, Naruto does. Turns his back as he listens to the _hiss_ of the can behind him, writing or drawing out whatever it is Sasuke thinks he’d like. Or find amusement in. Or whatever. _Naruto_ will be the judge of that, thank you very much.

“Alright,” Sasuke says, and his voice is right in his ear and sends a tingle down Naruto’s spine. “You can look again.”

Naruto does, and when his eyes land on the masterpiece before him, he bursts out into a fit of laughter.

The other paintings of the former headmasters are in similar fashion to Hiruzen, but the work is reminiscent to Naruto’s earlier works, back in elementary and middle school, the height of his art. Ugly brows, crazy hair, cuss words that would make Iruka blush, the whole nine yards. Tobirama had it the worst. Face transformed into a cross between a donkey and the devil himself, somehow Sasuke making it work.

“I take it you like it.”

“Fucking, Sasuke—I love it, bastard!” Naruto says in between laughs. It’s beautiful. “What’d poor Tobirama do to you?”

“Dunno,” Sasuke answers with a shrug. “Looks racist.”

Naruto laughs again, and it takes a while for him to notice, but the corners of Sasuke’s mouth are up in a smile. A real one.

“Glad you liked it, usuratonkachi.”

The two of them end up bolting from the grand hall before either of them could get caught in the act. But as they run, Naruto’s heart hasn’t felt this light in years. Not since before Sasuke left, anyway. There had been moments of happiness and joy, but there was always that weight holding him down. 

It’s finally gone, and he knows it’s because of Sasuke.

  
  
  
  
  
  


They get caught for their little art stunt and get another detention together. This time, Sasuke sits next to Naruto instead of in front of him, and this time, Naruto doesn’t try to start a fight with him in order to talk to him.

Small steps in the right direction.

  
  
  


“Stop staring at Sasuke, Naruto,” Sakura says in between taking sips of soda. “It’s getting creepy.”

Naruto chokes on a mouthful of rice at the accusation, a sharp inhale of breath at being caught in the act. Although, he wasn’t staring, he was simply… observing. Waiting for the moment where Sasuke would look up and meet his eyes and acknowledge Naruto after catching him in the act of looking back. 

No luck, however. Sasuke acted like today was any other day, indifferent and above it all. It drove Naruto _insane_.

He’s about to explain all this, but his throat is raw from all the hacking and coughing from trying not to choke on a rice ball. Instead, Shikamaru in his bored tone merely says, “Aren’t you tired of hoping he’d come around to this dumb competition you’ve set up? I don’t know why you keep trying to get Sasuke of all people to be involved in something as childish as that.”

Across the way, Ino kicks at Shikamaru’s shin under the table. Hard. He mutters a cuss under his breath as she chastizes, “Don’t judge anyone when you still keep trying to impress Temari with your over-gelled, catastrophic spikes you call hair. Eat your lunch.”

“That’s nowhere near the same thing,” Shikamaru mutters as he turns his head towards Choji who’s sat next to him, as he always does no matter what, and asks under his breath, “Is my hair that bad?”

“Nah, you look great.”

From across the table, Ino sends Naruto a wink, to which Naruto goes from inwardly groaning to making the noise out loud. Embarrassment heating up his bloodstream, no doubt the heat he feels in his cheeks making itself known to anybody with a pair of eyes. Sakura quirks a brow, but says nothing—electing to talk about her upcoming wrestling game within the next week. None the wiser to the silent back and forth between him and Ino.

Nobody else in their friend group really knows besides her. It was during one of Shikamaru’s party during their first year, where every six months they gather to his older family friend’s house who’d let Shikamaru house sit while he went to go visit his long-distance girlfriend. That particular night Naruto had already been a couple drinks in, but that was more than enough to get his lips loose and his head a little spinny. A game of spin the bottle, and Naruto’s pointed to Ino’s, or vice versa, and the two of them ended up locked in a closet for the better part of five minutes.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Ino confessed she was hoping for the bottle to land on Sakura while Naruto exclaimed he only acted so excited to make Sasuke jealous. Together they sat in silence before Ino broke into a fit of questions while Naruto desperately tried to explain what he _really_ meant. 

Ino only needed seven minutes to pick apart a truth Naruto had not even been aware of until that night. 

“Honestly, Naruto, if you want to talk to Sasuke, just head over there yourself,” Ino says in a low voice, before taking a bite of her lunch. “Or I’ll just dare you to.”

“Yeah, I’d love to see you try.”

But the smirk on her lips as her mouth closed around her fork was convincing enough that she would, no problem.

“Wait—”

“I dare you to sit with Sasuke for the rest of the lunch period. No complaining.”

Just as Naruto opens his mouth to argue, Ino raises her fork, ready to stab, and he swallows the complaint with a dry throat. He looks over towards where Sasuke’s sitting with his group of friends he sits with at every lunch period, and as he goes to turn back to Ino with pleading eyes, she’s already shooing him off and away. Everyone else at the table is watching as Kiba balances the spoon on his nose, too focused to pay Naruto any mind to his current predicament. 

It’s not that Naruto’s scared of Sasuke or anything dumb like that. No matter how many fist fights they had gotten into in middle school together, or the intensity and tension that came from their competitions, there had never been any ounce of fear—only the exhilaration and thunderous heart racing of simply being in Sasuke’s head. 

But those have always been opportunities of chance. Merely coincidence that Sasuke happens to be in the same gym class as Naruto, having their free period together, accidentally bumping into each other in the halls or outside on the way to their bus stop. Sure, maybe sometimes Naruto would linger by the other’s locker in chance of seeing Sasuke, or would just so happen to take the seat next to Sasuke whenever they shared a class together, because it was either sitting next to Sasuke or next to Shino with his weird obsession with bugs. 

Naruto’s never made any actual effort into being around Sasuke on purpose. Not without a reason to bother or annoy or challenge him backing him up. The idea of it made his throat tight and palms sweaty, as if this was an exam he hadn’t studied for instead of simply talking to the bastard.

All of it made worse by the fact Sasuke’s dark eyes glance up to meet Naruto’s through his lashes. Curious and hypnotizing all at once. Naruto’s brain is static aside from _Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke…_

“What do you want, dobe?”

There’s nothing he wants that he can _actually_ say, so he forces himself to roll his eyes as if that was the most stupid question on earth, and plops down on the seat across from him.

“Our table’s full,” The guy with bleached white hair, always hovering around Sasuke like a bad cold that just won’t go away, says. A sneer edged into the sound of his voice. “As funny as it would be to see you get your ass beat again, Naruto, we’re busy. Isn’t that right, Sasuke?”

Sasuke says nothing. Merely keeps staring at Naruto with furrowed brows, as if trying to decipher the meaning behind him sitting here, or if Naruto’s actually there at all. Naruto can’t help but stare back.

“We could always get fresh blood,” Juugo replies with a shrug, taking a bite of his fried fish from lunch. “Hearing you and Karin argue every lunch gets tiring. Sounds like screeching alley cats after a while.”

A snort escapes Naruto. He always did like Juugo the best out of Sasuke’s weird little cult following.

“Oi!” Karen smacks at Juugo’s arm, frowning at him. “It’s not my fault Suigetsu’s an idiot. Somebody has to put him in his place since _you_ refuse to do it.”

“I’m a pacifist,” Juugo replies.

Suigetsu snorts. “Yeah, tell that to that kid who transferred out of our middle school after you went crazy on him.”

The table erupts into the very cat screeches Juugo had described earlier, Suigetsu and Karin’s voices being the loudest as Juugo sighs in annoyance. Any focus on Naruto drifts away to those three, but when Naruto’s eyes gaze back at Sasuke, he’s still staring right at him. 

Heat crawls up his spine at the knowledge Sasuke hasn’t wavered his focus on Naruto since he’s sat down.

“Ignore them,” Sasuke says, and Naruto has no problem doing that now. Impossible to when Sasuke’s voice is clear and soothing compared to those hyenas, and his face is magnetizing, unable to pull away from. “You always sit with your friends, but today you chose to sat here with me. What’s going on?”

There’s a sting in Naruto’s chest at the fact Sasuke has separated himself from _friends_ . Part of Naruto wants to say, _We were friends too once, asshole_ , but thinks better of it. Doesn’t want Sasuke’s posse to overhear something that makes the stitches in Naruto’s heart come undone.

Sasuke quirks a brow, prompting him, and Naruto feels the words lodge up in his throat before he can even _think_ about what to properly say.

“Ino dared me to.”

As soon as the words leave Naruto’s mouth, he wants to slap himself in the face. 

Except Sasuke only tilts his head as he takes in what Naruto’s said, analyze and comprehend just exactly what he means. Somehow that’s worse than him getting annoyed, like Naruto expected. There’s a certain patience to Sasuke that has Naruto’s pulse jumping underneath the skin.

“Now why would she do that?” Sasuke asks, finally. Only now does he break the tenuous hold he had with Naruto’s eyes, attention drifting towards his pickled tomato instead of on Naruto. Though, to be honest, Naruto doesn’t _feel_ as if Sasuke’s focus has gone anywhere from the way his pounding heart has his leg bouncing underneath the lunch table. “Unless the two of you were talking about me. Is that what you were doing, Naruto?”

How this turned around into some interrogation, Naruto has no idea. Sasuke might just be that good at getting underneath his skin, and that thought, while exhilarating, was also terrifying.

“No!” Naruto objects, albeit a little too forcefully from the way Sasuke’s gaze lands on him again, the slight smirk on his lips giving away his amusement. Naruto huffs, turns away from him like a pouty child. “Ino just knows how much I can’t stand you, so she sent me over here to torture me.”

Sasuke hums thoughtfully, before taking another bite of his food. 

If he’s convinced or not of Naruto’s explanation, Sasuke doesn’t give it away.

Swallowing the last of his bite, Sasuke finally replies, “You didn’t have to come over here if it was _that_ inconvenient for you, dumbass.”

“Come on, you know me better than that, Sasuke,” Naruto retorts, earning a curious expression from the other. “Uzumaki Naruto _never_ backs down from a dare! Never!”

There’s an edge of a smile on Sasuke’s face, barely there and a blink if you miss it type of deal, but Naruto knows what it is as soon as he sees it. The sight of it has his insides fluttering, as if he’s swallowed a handful of butterflies.

“Guess you’re right,” Sasuke says. “When I think back to when we were kids, you never gave up on weaseling yourself into my life.”

It’s not the first time Sasuke has mentioned their old friendship, but this time was different. Especially with the ghost of a smile still lingering on his lips.

“Suppose you still haven’t given up, even now.”

A thousand questions form on Naruto’s tongue, but before any of them can reach their way out and to Sasuke’s ears, the bell rings and lunch is over. Groans and cusses from other students spill out, and the room is filled by the shuffling of feet and trays as everyone floods out of the cafeteria.

Sasuke’s still sitting there, eyeing Naruto, and Naruto can’t get his brain to form any words. 

“We’ll talk later, loser.”

Sasuke’s words of talking later plays like a loop in Naruto’s mind, much to his absolute annoyance. 

It’s impossible to focus on anything else. Even when he’s playing videogames with his boys after school, or talking to Sakura on the phone later in the night. All his attention flickers back to Sasuke and that day in the cafeteria, that day he caught him spraypainting the headmasters portraits, that day on the bus where Sasuke had looked back.

All of it meant something, Naruto just didn’t know what. Maybe Sasuke had wanted to be friends again after that period of silence and hurt feelings. 

“Eh, I doubt it,” Sakura had said when he voiced his feelings aloud to her that night over the phone. “Come on, Naruto. Sasuke made it pretty clear he didn’t want anything to do with us before he transferred out of middle school, _and_ when he came back to highschool with his new group.”

It was true. There had been a whole two and a half years of radio silence after Sasuke had left halfway through his last year of middle school before he returned to highschool in their third year. Honestly, the first time Naruto had saw him walking in the same halls at Naruto on their first day back in school after summer, he couldn’t believe his own eyes.

But Sasuke had seen him then, and the two of them stared each other so intently, until Naruto broke it by screaming curses at him from across the hall. That would eventually lead to their first fight, and the first of many, many, detentions shared together.

Now that he thinks back to that day, Naruto sighs in annoyance at his past self. Iruka had told him there were a million other ways Naruto could’ve handled Sasuke’s return, but that was probably the worst one. At the time, Naruto refused to hear him, but now that the school year is halfway through, he can’t help but agree.

“Sakura-Chan, you don’t get it,” Naruto replies as he doodles a toad on the corner margin of his homework, opting to give him a monocle for a bit of pizazz. Fancy. “We’ve been talking a bit again and…”

“Talking isn’t the same as fighting and arguing,” Sakura corrects. “Don’t act like I don’t know the two of you haven’t had detention together twice this week. I’m in charge of organizing the detention slips, in case you’ve forgotten, stupid.”

Naruto sighs loudly into the receiver, dramatically. He rolls over onto his back on his bed, staring at his ceiling. “Communicating, I guess, if you want to be technical about it…”

“Naruto, I’m not trying to be a buzzkill, but I’ve seen you get your hopes up before about reconnecting with Sasuke only for it to be thrown in your face.” Like Sakura’s blunt personality, the words are true, without any sugarcoating. He can’t deny that the disappointment and sadness from Sasuke had left him anything less than a stereotypical teen in a melodrama movie, locked up in his room while Iruka hovered outside like the typical anxious parent. “And don’t forget I told Sasuke I _loved_ him, and he told me I was annoying! Me! Okay, maybe I’m a little annoying sometimes, but he didn’t have to be so rude about it.”

That was also something Naruto remembered a little too well. How Sakura had cried on his shoulder after Sasuke rejected both of them, albeit in completely different ways. Sometimes from the way Sakura talks about Sasuke, it seems as if she isn’t completely over him yet, which adds a whole other layer of complication to his whirlwind of confusing feelings surrounding Sasuke.

Why instead of telling his best friend about it all, Naruto had opted talking about the conflicting and new-but-not-new feelings with Sakura’s girl best friend at a random party. 

A loud beep breaks him out of his thoughts, and Naruto glances down at his phone to see he’s got an incoming call from an unknown number. It must be one of the guys wanting to hang out since it’s Friday night, but considering he keeps forgetting to save their numbers, he writes himself a post-it note to remind himself to do it later. “Hey, Sakura-Chan, I’ve got another call. I’ll talk to you later, alright?”

“Sure,” Sakura says. “I’m going out with Ino and the girls at the mall tomorrow. You’re welcome to come, but just you. No inviting Shikamaru or Kiba or anyone else, it’s a whole thing I’ll tell you about later. Bye!”

Naruto offers a goodbye and a fleeting bit of curiosity about the whole thing with Shikamaru and Kiba before he ends the call with Sakura and takes the call with the unknown number instead. He puts the post-it note he wrote out on his forehead and goes back to laying on his back again as he gives whoever’s on the opposite line a casual, “Hello?”

“Hey,” Sasuke’s voice comes through, smooth and familiar. It has Naruto’s eyes snapping right open. “Naruto.”

“Sasuke,” Naruto breathes out into the receiver, before pulling the phone back and checking the number once again, realizing it’s not the number he’s had saved under Sasuke’s name for years now. “You got a new phone?”

“A while ago,” Sasuke answers. “New number you don’t have, I guess.”

“Oh, then how’d you get my number?”

“I’ve always kept it, dobe.”

Naruto’s stomach flips at the words, warmth spreading along his cheeks. Remembers how years ago, when they were paired up for their first project together, Naruto had ripped the blank area of Sasuke’s syllabus off to write his number for him, and how Sasuke chewed him out for it as he stuffed the piece of paper into his jacket pocket. 

The fact that he’s kept it all these years is a double-edged sword. On one hand, even when Sasuke had wanted nothing to do with him, he had held onto this little piece of Naruto. On the other, he had only chosen now to punch in the numbers.

“Oh,” Naruto replies, because it’s all he can actually say.

Silence spills over the line, and Naruto hates it in a way he doesn’t when it’s the two of them in person. Over the phone, Naruto can’t see Sasuke’s face. Unable to make note of the twitch of his lips or the way his eyes look under any lighting, or how his brows say more than his words do. 

If he closes his eyes, it’s easy to pretend Sasuke’s in the room with him. Even though Sasuke says nothing, his presence fills the empty space around him.

Eventually, Sasuke asks, “What are you doing?”

“Me?” Naruto asks, as if there’s anyone else Sasuke could be talking to.

“Yes, you, dumbass,” Sasuke replies. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

Naruto shuffles a bit so he’s sitting upright in his bed, leaning against the pillows. He glances at the clock, the setting sun, and shakes his head as he speaks into the phone, “I was going to hang out with Shikamaru, Choji, Lee, Neji, Sai, Kiba, and Shino later… We were going to go see a movie or something. Nothing crazy.”

“When are you free next?”

Those words jumpstart something in Naruto’s heart, the smile breaking out on his face making his cheeks ache.

“Tonight,” he answers without hesitation. “I’m free tonight, uh, if you’re free.”

“I’m free tonight too,” Sasuke says, and Naruto swears if he closes his eyes, he can picture the smile on Sasuke’s face that he hears in his voice. “You want to go for a walk in the park?”

“What am I? A dog?”

A huff of air escapes Sasuke, the equivalent to a laugh. Naruto’s smile grows wider at the fact he made it happen. “We don’t have to go to the park. I was just… throwing an idea out there.”

“You want to hang out with me tonight, _Sasuke_?”

“I told you we’d talk later, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did,” Naruto replies, a little more quiet into the phone. “I didn’t think you’d actually go through with it though.”

Another bout of silence passes through them, but it’s not awkward or tense like it was before. Just on the edge of sadness, or maybe it’s Naruto’s sadness pushing through the smiles and laughs he’s sent over the line, tired of being stuffed down.

Sasuke sighs over the line, and on the other end there’s shuffling. The subtle movements brushing against the receiver as if he’s already on the move. “Yeah, I know,” he says softly, finally giving in to acknowledging the divide between them Sasuke created. “Things were…”

“I know, Sasuke,” Naruto’s voice is just as soft, and the movement on the other end of the line stills, until all that’s left is the sound of their breathing. He wishes Sasuke was here in the room with him now, to see his face, what he’s feeling. “You don’t have to say it.”

For a long time, Sasuke says nothing, until he lets out, “Naruto…”

“We know each other’s hearts, remember, Sasuke?”

A soft chuckle escapes Sasuke, caught off guard and bemused all at once at the words from the past echoed back to him. The corners of Naruto’s mouth twitch up at the sound, and he can picture the subtlest shake of his head, everything about Sasuke confined and calculating unless Naruto causes him to break his own rules.

“Let’s meet at the pier?”

Warmth flutters in Naruto’s chest at the mention of that place—their place.

“Yeah,” he lets out breathlessly, already shrugging on his bomber jacket. “I’ll meet you there.”

After Naruto convinces Iruka he’s hanging out with Shikamaru and friends, taking a train to the halfway point in the city, and walking down a couple blocks, the sun has nearly dipped over the horizon. Oranges and purples and dark blues are painting the sky, and there at the center of it, is Sasuke, already sitting at the edge of the pier, legs dangling over the ledge with his back turned and facing the water’s ripples.

It’s a deja-vu moment if Naruto’s ever experienced one. Except instead of the small boy sitting at the pier with the weight of the world on his shoulders, there’s only Sasuke, more grown, body free from strain as he watches the setting sun.

The sight has Naruto’s stomach twisting with nerves, in the excited way he’d get when he’s managed to win a competition against Sasuke, or make Iruka proud, or having Sakura smile at him. 

Except there’s no competition here. Just Naruto wanting Sasuke and finally having him in his reach. 

Naruto takes a seat next to him, and Sasuke doesn’t need to turn to look at him to know he’s there, and when Naruto glances at Sasuke from his peripheral, there’s the hint of a smile on his face.

“Finally,” Sasuke says, stretching his shoulders languidly for dramatic effect. “Took you long enough.”

“Hey! You don’t have to deal with Iruka questioning where you’re going, who you’re going with, and all that bullcrap,” Naruto shouts, turning his head completely as he knocks Sasuke’s shoulder with his own. “Luckily Kakashi’s coming over, so he was a little more… Lenient. I guess.”

Sasuke hums thoughtfully. “The adoption with Iruka finally went through?”

The question catches Naruto off-guard, eyes widening a fraction as he stares at Sasuke, really looks at him. Last time they’ve talked like this, not argue or speak in riddles or whatever they’ve been doing this past school year, Iruka was still in the process of adopting Naruto. And Naruto, who didn’t believe it would actually happen, that he was a lost cause destined to go back to a group home, didn’t know what his life was going to look like.

But he had Sasuke then. Their odd friendship built from misunderstandings and want and the brief intensity of knowing the other person despite the walls they put up. How right here, on this very pier, Naruto had laughed off the possibility of ever having a permanent home, and how Sasuke had stared at him in quiet understanding. That his presence and being seen had been all Naruto had ever wanted.

How later that year, while Iruka was working diligently to make sure he kept Naruto, Itachi had lost custody of Sasuke, and in the process, the argument born from the ripples of that had split them apart.

“Yeah,” Naruto answers, turning his head away to look at their feet hovering over the water, as the sun sinks completely under the water for night to come alive again. “Last summer, everything was official.”

“Congratulations,” Sasuke says, voice genuine and on the edge of sweet. “You deserved that to happen, Naruto.”

Naruto’s hands clench in his lap, unsure of what to do with them, what to say. And considering he’s never been one to think it through anyway, he doesn’t try to figure it out.

“Why did you bring me here, Sasuke?”

“To talk,” Sasuke replies easy, and damn him. It shouldn’t be so easy for him to answer his questions, say whatever, while Naruto’s sitting here trying to pick apart what’s going on. “I didn’t lie about that.”

“Why now?” Naruto asks. It’s not the only burning question, but it’s the one that’s on the tip of his tongue, unable to be held back. “Huh? All those calls I sent you, going to your house and you never answering, I just… Two and a half years, Sasuke... “

Sasuke goes quiet, pensieve, and now that the golden rays have gone down, the moonlight reflecting on his face changes his face. Rearranges the features of the golden boy into the sad, lonely one Naruto knows is there, hidden under the surface. Same as him.

“I’ve never said I was perfect,” he replies, quietly. “Or that I was a good friend. Except you kept trying and reaching out and I… I didn’t know how to handle what you were offering to me. I didn’t know how to… accept that.”

Now Naruto’s the one who’s quiet, intent on watching Sasuke. How when Naruto’s entire body shifts, so does Sasuke. Dark eyes meeting Naruto’s own, the twinge of fear in his eyes contrasted by the stillness of his body. A part of Naruto wants to reach out and touch him, out of reassurance or something entirely more selfish, but he clenches his hand into a fist and holds it to himself. 

A single sigh escapes Sasuke, tired, maybe, or letting the tension roll off his body. Impossible to tell. 

“After Itachi lost custody, I was moved around from house to house. Ended up in this one guy’s house, and things were bad,” Sasuke admits. That’s all he admits however. That’s all he needs to admit for Naruto’s rage to build in his throat to the point of suffocation, the gritting of his teeth, the need to put his hand through whichever bastard had the responsibility of taking care of Sasuke and failed him. “That was when I… Broke up our friendship, I guess. Self destructed. You know.”

Only Naruto knows too well. How when he was young, he’d rather torch and burn his bridges down before they could ever collapse onto him. Make people laugh with him rather than at him. That one time he ran away from home because Iruka was disappointed with him on his grades, and Naruto knew it was better to bail first before being abandoned first.

The fact that Sasuke went through this, too… Naruto had a sneaking suspicion that’s what it was, why he couldn’t give up on Sasuke no matter how many of his friends told him to, that Sasuke was nothing more than heartbreak and a lost cause. He couldn’t give up on Sasuke. Because Sasuke was his friend. His first friend. His best friend.

“I beat the shit out of him. Orochimaru,” Sasuke says with a smile on his face, and Naruto smiles too, proud of him. “Got charges pressed against me, but when I explained everything that happened… Well, they dropped. Had to get a court mandated therapist though. Her name’s Tsunade. You’d like her.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm.” Sasuke nods. “She’s loud and demanding like you.”

“Hey, bastard!”

“Let me finish, dobe,” Sasuke says, and Naruto huffs, crosses his arms over his chest childishly, but he does keep a listening ear out. Always does when it’s Sasuke. “Talking with her… Made me realize a lot of things. Ultimately, it made me want to come back to school. Here, where you were.”

“Why did it take you so long to reach out to me?”

Sasuke smiles, although there’s an edge of sadness there that makes Naruto want to wipe it away. Bring back that easiness from earlier, although, maybe that wasn’t ease. Maybe it was Sasuke wearing a mask for Naruto yet again. 

“The beginning of the school year, I saw you and…” He looks fully at Naruto, though Naruto knows when it comes to things like this—Sasuke and vulnerability and saying how he feels—he can’t bear to look at him. It’s obvious in the way forces his eyes on him, though his body is half-turned away, as if ready to flee, that he’s uncomfortable but pushing past it so Naruto can see him. _Really_ see him. “I saw that anger and it reminded me of that fight. The one we had before we left. I remember how bad I hurt you then, and how much pain you had, and I couldn’t… I couldn’t bring myself to do that to you again.”

Naruto swallows his dry throat, ears ringing, but feels no relief in the tightness of his chest. The anticipation of where this leads them. “Were you scared I wouldn’t forgive you?”

“No,” Sasuke replies. “I was… scared that you would.”

“Huh?”

“Everyone else in my life I’ve cut ties with hated me for it. Gave up on me. Rightly so, considering, well, everything…” Sasuke replies, a half-smile on his face as he shrugs. “It may seem like a fucked up thing to say, but… I didn’t really mind if the world hated me. But you never did.”

“I couldn’t.”

“I know,” comes Sasuke’s reply with a shake of his head. “You never gave up on me, and I still don’t understand why. You should have hated me.”

“Sasuke, I couldn’t do that.”

“I _know_.” A beat. “Part of me felt like… I couldn’t have your forgiveness until I earned it.”

Naruto’s forehead crinkles in confusion. “Earned it? How?”

“Letting you fight me. Get angry. Until the scales were even.”

“By punishing you?”

Sasuke scrunches his nose, as if he’s smelt something rancid. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“That’s stupid,” Naruto replies, blunt and without remorse. “For someone who’s supposed to be smart, you’re so fucking stupid, Sasuke. It’s ridiculous.”

And then Sasuke lets out a laugh, a breathless, bitter sort of laugh where he’s shaking his head in disbelief. Ones he’d always do in Naruto’s presence. 

“Yeah, getting in your face and starting a fight with you when I first saw you probably didn’t give off the best impression in the world,” he admits, swinging his legs along the edge as Naruto smiles at where the night meets the water, the moon’s reflection in the ripples. “Don’t know why I did that. I mean, that’s always been my go-to, even when we were kids. I didn’t… Sometimes I didn’t know how to tell you what I felt either.”

“I’m aware,” Sasuke responds. “You always act out when something’s bothering you.”

Their conversation earlier in the week flashes before him, and something warm settles in his gut.

“I know your heart, and you know mine.”

Warmth explodes into pleasant heat, and Naruto’s head is swimming, elated.

“Because you’re my friend.”

Sasuke tilts his head at Naruto, caught off guard by the randomness of Naruto’s words. “What?”

“I couldn’t give up on you, because you’re my friend,” he explains, and Naruto’s eyes meet Sasuke’s, and neither of them lets go. Sasuke hanging on Naruto’s words, Naruto hanging on the way Sasuke’s eyes shine in the moonlight. “Was I hurt? Was I pissed? Sad? Yeah. But you’re my friend. Every time I saw you in pain, I felt it, too. Right here.”

Naruto brings Sasuke’s hand to rest on his chest, right where his heart is pounding against his ribcage and threatening to burst through. Honestly, he wouldn’t even mind if Sasuke reached in and pulled the damn thing out. Not when Sasuke’s staring at him like this, wide-eyed and lips parted, as if on the verge of jumping in and never coming out.

It’s only now does all those confusing feelings brewing within the past six months has finally become clear to Naruto. What he feels for Sasuke, what he’s always felt for Sasuke that’s been molded into a new shape with the same material.

Love. 

Naruto’s in love with Sasuke, always has been, always will be.

“How do you know I won’t hurt you again?”

“I just know,” Naruto answers. “Even if you did, I’d kick your ass again until you apologized. Force myself back into your life until you finally get it through your thick skull that nothing you can do will make me stay away from you.”

Sasuke laughs in disbelief. A throaty sound where he shakes his head and turns it away from Naruto, because he can’t bear to look at him. His hand leaves his chest, and although the warmth of Sasuke’s palm is already fading and Naruto’s already missing it, he lets him go. 

It’s only then Naruto notices it. The single tear sliding down Sasuke’s cheek, barely noticeable from the dark and the way Sasuke hides from him. 

Naruto reaches out with the pad of his thumb and wipes it dry. Keeps his hands on Sasuke’s face until he’s guiding Sasuke back to looking at him, smiling with tears welling his own eyes as he continues to wipe the tears threatening to spill.

“It’s okay,” Naruto says softly, just for Sasuke’s ears. “It’s okay to cry when you’re happy, Sasuke.”

A wet snort escapes from Sasuke, without warning, and it’s then Naruto realizes he can’t bring himself to say anything. It’s okay, Naruto thinks. They don’t have to talk after this. All the words have come out, and frankly, Naruto’s tired of talking and he knows Sasuke’s tired of telling. For now, that’s all they needed to get back on the right track where the two of them stumbled off, lost and searching for what was right in front of them the entire time.

What matters most is Sasuke is back, and Naruto’s never letting him slip through his fingers again. 

Everything else is secondary.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/comments always appreciated!
> 
> As I was writing, I wish I worked this on earlier so it could be longer. A part of me would like to expand on the whole history between the two of them, and then on their home lives, and how Naruto and Sasuke end up together romantically afterwards and the ripple effects it'd have on their two separate friend groups and yadda yadda yadda. But now that I'm finished, I kind of like where I left it off? I know, no kissing or anything, but it felt like a good spot. Maybe one day if I'm ever up to it I'll write a part two to this. 
> 
> *Also, if you're wondering if I'm still working on the fuck konoha series I am! I have half the chapter completed, I'm just slow ^__^
> 
> Twitter: @bihetnaruto  
> Tumblr: @sapphicvevo/bitchynaruto


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